


The Cure

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [34]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23527810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Summary: Mikkel gives the news.
Series: Mikkel's Story [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	The Cure

“Yeah,” Mikkel said heavily.

The team back in Sweden wanted to know if he had answers for them yet. Sorting the scrambled records, deciphering the stained and sometimes torn pages, he had missed lunch and left his dinner cooling and congealing beside him. But he had the answer.

The team in the tank had read the answer on his face and responded in their own ways. Lalli had wolfed his dinner and gone to bed. Pragmatic Sigrun had finished her dinner and settled down to watch out the windows, her impatience shown only by her hands, which she clasped and unclasped continually. The other three picked at their dinners, casting occasional covert glances at their medic. No one spoke.

As Mikkel cleared his throat to begin, Reynir put aside his bowl and joined Tuuri, his translator, putting a comforting arm around her as they listened.

“There's a lot here that may be useful. Case studies, reports on their research, reports on research in other countries … but the most important for us is this.” He briefly lifted the folder he held. “It's the minutes of the final meeting of the Rash Research Group, which was coordinating all Danish research on the Rash.

“The main researchers reported that they did have a working cure.” There was a slight stir in his audience. “ _But_ the cure had an inevitable side effect: complete and irreversible brain death.” The audience sighed softly. “The researchers said they needed two months to identify the problem. They were given two weeks and dismissed. The meeting was adjourned.

“The Steering Committee continued to meet. The Director ordered that in two weeks the cure would be distributed even if – even _though_ – it would kill every patient. Killing every infected person was their last, desperate hope to stop the plague.

“But it was already too late.”

Beside him, Tuuri bravely translated for Reynir in a voice choked with unshed tears. As she finished, the Icelander pulled her close and she buried her face against his shoulder while he rested his cheek on top of her head. The three immunes looked away, unable to face them. The immunes had hoped to bring home the cure for their families, their friends, the world; they had hoped for fame and fortune. The non-immunes had hoped for freedom: freedom from the fear that ever lurked in the backs of their minds; freedom from the laws and customs that both protected and smothered them; freedom just to visit the latrine alone.

But all their hopes were crushed.

“Really?” Sigrun said finally. “They couldn't put up a sign outside that said 'don't waste your time coming inside, we have nothing useful in here'?”

“I'm going to assume future explorers stopping by was not a major concern of theirs,” Mikkel answered drily. “Apologies for the less than celebratory news,” he added in Icelandic for those listening on the radio.

“It's quite all right,” Torbjörn answered with a sigh, “we all knew finding a cure was a long shot. You have salvaged a marvelous collection of books, so as a whole we can easily say this mission has been a success. We've already arranged for a ship with proper quarantine facilities to come pick you up.”

“Finally,” Onni put in from somewhere near the radio.

“It'll be a while before it reaches you, somewhere north of twenty days, they said, but you should be able to reach the pick up location in just a few days. It's one of the coastal outposts set up during the failed reclamation efforts, and there will be still-edible canned goods over there. And fairly comfortable lodging, as far as military shelters go, I've been told.”

With that they had to be content. Mikkel picked up his neglected dinner and began to fuel himself. They had little enough food, and he was unwilling to waste even a single bowl.


End file.
